# Jewish Lineage - Rules **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 25, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-lineage-rules/171029 "2003-04-25T03:17:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-lineage-rules/171029/21 "2003-04-27T21:59:12Z")
**Marley:** \<\< Would some consider me Jewish? They might (though they’d better not do so to my face) \>\> An interesting reaction. If your parents were (let us say) Chinese or Italian or Irish, would you take equal offense at being thought of as being of those races/ethnicities? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2003, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-lineage-rules/171029/22 "2003-04-28T02:07:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mame \* > \*\*So, assume a person has been raised by Jewish parents, all adhere to Jewish traditions, and that person regards themself as Jewish. Then, in later life, they discover they are adopted. Do they continue to be Jewish? Were they ever Jewish? \*\* Nowadays, the American Reforms consider a child to be Jewish if the mother _or_ the father are Jewish and the kid is raised as a Jew. The mother only rule made practical sense in the old days. You had eye witness proof who the mother was but could never know for certain who the father was. Now with DNA and such you can have proof positive of who’s the daddy. Nevertheless, families who are in the situation of Jewish father/non-Jewish mother will get an Othodox conversion for the child soon after the birth so all sects will consider the child to be Jewish. Perhaps the same procedure will be followed in the case of an adoption. Haj [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-lineage-rules/171029.md?page=1)